“Tom Thibodeau should have a sigh of relief right now when it comes down now to being able to experiment with Julius Randle at the five positions until Mitchell Robinson gets back.” Kendrick Perkins was quite confident that the Knicks could have a commendable next season if they tried Julius Randle at a new position. However, the franchise decided to take another route altogether, as it has now been revealed that the 29-year-old power forward is set to be traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Karl-Anthony Towns. Randle will not be going alone, as fellow shooting guard Donte DiVincenzo will be accompanying him. Fans were initially excited after Mikal Bridges was traded to the Knicks. The reason? The upcoming season would have served as a reunion for him, Jalen Brunson, DiVincenzo, and Josh Hart, who together led the Villanova college basketball team to the 2016 championship. Unfortunately, the dream ended up being too good to be true.

The New York Knicks must have had a good reason to remove one of their long-serving players, along with breaking up the quartet. The same goes for Karl-Anthony Towns, who was an efficient second-hand to Anthony Edwards. Therefore, without any further ado, let us dive into the reason why.

Why was Karl-Anthony Towns traded for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo?

According to Spotrac, the last recorded salary cap of the Timberwolves was a whopping $241.8 million! This placed them way above the $188.9 million second apron as established in the updated Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) guidelines. Continuing to maintain this position would have not only cost the franchise in terms of fines, but would have also limited their abilities to conduct trades. While Anthony Edwards is set to make $42.176 million during the upcoming season, Towns commanded the highest pay, set at $53.1 million. As a result, NBA reporters Trevor Lane and Keith Smith had already ruled on the possibility of the player’s trade. After all, it was not justified to spend this much money when the Timberwolves already had four additional centers!

“One of those three centers, Towns, Gobert, Reid, won’t be on this team anymore. One of the three will be gone….it’s crazy to have that much invested in one position,” said Smith back in mid-September. Towns’ massive pay somewhat made him the obvious candidate, since Smith later added “Minnesota has the second-largest payroll in the NBA, (right) behind the Suns. That’s how expensive they are. They have more money on the books than the Celtics.”

According to an earlier report by ‘The Franchise’, the New York Knicks reportedly had a genuine interest in bringing KAT to their fold. After all, he could provide them with a versatile inside-outside offensive game that would complement the offensive prowess of Brunson, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart, and Mikal Bridges well. This speculation only intrigued fans more after learning that Julius Randle still hadn’t been provided an extension deal. The New York franchise was close to being in a similar situation as the Timberwolves, salary-cap wise, had it not been for Jalen Brunson signing a four-year $156.5 million extension when he was eligible for a five-year, $269.1 million contract. As a result, the Knicks had the potential to absorb Towns, and so they did! In the meantime, with Randle set to earn $28.9 million and DiVincenzo’s $11.4 million for the 2024-25 season, who can refuse getting two renowned players for less than the price of one?

How did Karl-Anthony Towns react to his trade?

The trade announcement seemed to have taken Karl-Anthony Towns by quite a bit of a surprise. The same was observed after he took to his official X account and simply wrote “… ”. The remark was dropped just a few minutes before Shams Charania broke the news and announced the end of his nine-year journey. Even with Adrian Wojnarowski having now retired, it seems that the renowned reporter continues facing competition on who breaks the news first. Fans who were observing the Timberwolves situation during the off-season, however, knew that such a change was inevitable, given the franchise’s precarious financial position.

As of now, KAT has not chosen to elaborate on his cryptic remark. For NBA reporter Jon Krawczynski, however, this was a sign that the player was not happy, as he went on to state “One thing to be clear on tonight: KAT did not request this trade. He never has requested a move in nine years here.” The reporter also revealed the mood in the Towns camp to being “Stunned.”

Unfortunately, in a dynamic and ever-changing world like the NBA, even nine years is no guarantee for how the future may pan out. Just like Klay Thompson. However, while it was the Warriors player who wanted a change for himself, it was the Timberwolves franchise who saw a better opportunity and grabbed it.

Before you go, remember to check out this crossover between BG12 and Georgia Bulldogs star Silas Demary Jr.